Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Four Turkish women went on trial
today for staging an unauthorized protest outside the office of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against government plans to
curb abortion, the Halkevleri activist group said.

The protesters face a maximum three years in prison if
convicted by the court for the protest in Istanbul, said Sevinc
Hocaogullari, an official at the group. More than 80 of its
members are on trial for similar protests in the capital Ankara
and the western city of Eskisehir, she said.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in June
after Erdogan called abortion “murder.” Abortion is legal in
predominantly Muslim Turkey until a maximum 10 weeks from
conception, and Erdogan’s government said it was considering a
proposal to ban the operation after four weeks except in
emergencies. Parliament in July barred Caesarean sections unless
women can prove there is a medical condition preventing them
from giving birth naturally.

“It is our body, our choice, not the prime minister’s, the
family’s or the husband’s,” Hocaogullari said, accusing the
ruling Justice and Development Party of attempting to ban
abortion.

Health Minister Recep Akdag drew an angry response from
women’s groups in June when he said the government could even
take care of the babies of rape victims.

‘Cheap Labor’

Erdogan has repeatedly said that Turkish families should
have at least three children, and has argued that a large
population will enable Turkey to provide a workforce for an
ageing Europe if it’s granted European Union membership.
Turkey’s current population is about 75 million, and its birth
rate fell from 1.5 percent in 2010 to 1.3 percent in 2011,
according to the official statistics agency.

Erdogan may also be concerned to balance the country’s
ethnic demographics. Mothers in the largely Kurdish southeast of
Turkey have an average of 3.4 children, higher than the national
average of 2. The government has been fighting autonomy-seeking
Kurdish militants for decades in a war that has killed nearly
40,000 people.